In general system storage, storage devices such as hard disk drives are stored in storage racks and arranged such that there is the same or similar physical gap between storage devices of each row of storage devices. For high-density storage (typically five or more hard disk drive rows and fifteen or more hard disk drives per row), the quantity of storage devices can cause a high system impedance due to a small gap between the storage devices in each row. The small gap presents a challenge for cooling the storage devices because of an obstructed airflow between a cooling source such as a fan and subsequent rows of hard drives. As a result, storage devices in subsequent rows may overheat such that the system as a whole cannot reach optimal performance.
A traditional method to reduce system impedance in high-density storage is to reduce storage device quantity in the first or second rows of storage devices. However, because the existing storage devices maintain the same gap between devices in each row, this method only benefits the rear side of the removed row of storage devices and does not benefit all downstream storage device rows. Therefore, there exists a need for an improved method of reducing system impedance in high-density storage.